Photo: Alamy
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson posted a photo to X showing that he visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London’s Belmarsh prison last week.
“Visiting Julian Assange at Belmarsh Prison this morning,” Carlson’s post simply stated.
Assange is facing extradition to the United States where he is being charged for allegedly violating the Espionage Act after publishing leaked classified documents on Wikileaks.
While Assange has tried to halt the extradition, his latest appeal in June was rejected by a British High Court justice stating that it was an “attempt to re-run the extensive arguments” already made by a previous district judge, according to AP News.
“The proposed appeal comes to no more than an attempt to re-run the extensive arguments made to and rejected by the district judge,” High Court Justice Jonathan Swift stated, according to the outlet.
Assange sought refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 to avoid a now-dropped sexual assault case that had the Sweidish government attempting to extradit him. Shortly after, in 2019, the WikiLeaks founder was arrested at the embassy, for skipping bail on a separate case, and placed in the Belmarsh prison.
After his arrest, the British government approved Assange’s extradition to the United States, however, he has been trying to challenge his status since.
“We remain optimistic that we will prevail and that Julian will not be extradited to the United States, where he faces charges that could result in him spending the rest of his life in a maximum-security prison for publishing true information that revealed war crimes committed by the US government,” Assange’s wife, Stella, posted on X following his last appeal.
There are speculations that the meeting between Carlson and Assange could mean an interview for Carlson’s show, however, nothing has been confirmed.